Chapter 16

 

At home, Leighanne sat down at her kitchen table and opened the envelope.  Gingerly, she reached into it and pulled out a small packet of papers and other items.    The top paper was a copy of a medical file, she realized.   She looked at the name at the top, and her eyes widened in surprise and confusion.  

 

Littrell, Jacqueline.  

 

Brian’s mother? 

 

Perplexed, Leighanne skimmed over the file, not understanding what relevance it had.   She set it aside and looked down at the next thing in the pile.   This was not another form, but a sonogram, with Jackie Littrell’s name on it.  

 

Squinting at it, Leighanne could make out the shape of a baby on one half of it.   And on the other half… another baby?   Her heartbeat rising, Leighanne leaned down close to the sonogram and stared hard at it.   She could be wrong, but the shape on the other half of the sonogram looked very similar to the first.   It was a baby.   Two babies.   There were two babies.

 

“Two babies,” Leighanne whispered aloud, her eyes never leaving the sonogram.   “Twins.”    She saw the date on the sonogram.   December 19, 1974.   Just three months before Brian was born.   Jackie would have been about six months pregnant then with him… and his twin?

 

“No way,” she said.   “There’s no way he could have a twin.  He would have told me!”

 

And then another thought came to her.   Maybe Brian didn’t know.   The baby could have died at birth, and Brian’s parents had for some reason decided not to tell him about it.  

 

Leighanne shuffled through some more papers, hoping to find some answers.   And then, she found something.  A note, written in the handwriting she recognized as Brian’s mother’s.

 

Dear Dr. Walters,

 

I don’t know how to go about asking this, but I need your help.  It’s about the twins, obviously.  Don knows the truth now, and he’s blackmailing me.  He’s threatening to tell Harold about our affair if I don’t let him have one of the babies.  I don’t want to give up one of my children to him, but if Harold finds out what I’ve done, it would ruin our marriage.  That’s the last thing I want.  I’ve made some mistakes, but I love Harold.  And I have my little boy to think of.  I don’t want him growing up in a broken family.  He deserves better than that. 

 

I’ve made my decision – I’m going to let Don have one of the babies as soon as they’re born.  But I need your help.  Harold can’t ever know about Don or the twins or anything.  So please, I’m begging you, help me.  I know I’m asking a lot, but I’ll give anything to keep Harold from knowing the truth.  Will you help me?  I’ll be in touch.

 

Sincerely,

 

Jackie Littrell

 

When Leighanne finished reading the letter, her jaw was nearly on the floor.  Sweet, loving Jackie Littrell had had an affair?   Brian’s true father was a man named Don, not the kind, gentle father-in-law Leighanne had come to love like her own father?   And more shocking than anything else, Brian had a twin that had been given away at birth? 

 

She could hardly believe it.  And yet, the note was in Jackie’s own handwriting.  The sonogram had her name on it.   And there were definitely two babies there.  

 

Once the initial shock at what she had discovered wore off, Leighanne thought back to the strange phone call she had received the night before…

 

“Who I am isn’t important.   The information I have for you is.”

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

“It’s about your husband.  I have some information that might give you some answers.”

 

“Answers?  About what?”

 

“I think you’ll know once you get the information…”

 

Leighanne’s brow furrowed.   What did it all mean?   Why was it so important that she find this out now? 

 

And then, she began to think back to everything that had happened in the past few weeks.   She remembered the night Brian had come home after the tour, when he had surprised her with the lingerie.   He had been acting strange then, much more seductive than usual. 

 

And then she thought about all the mornings he had disappeared and come home later on, with strange explanations and sometimes no explanations at all.   Like the time he had said he went to get plant fertilizer, but the store was out.   She had gone later and found a whole supply of it.   And then there was the time he had gone out to get donuts and ended up in the driveway of a run down little house out in the middle of nowhere, supposedly out of gas.    Had he really been out of gas?  Or was he up to something?

 

Brian had been acting awfully strange these past few weeks, she realized.   Before, she had never really thought about all the incidents and added them up.   But now, as she thought back to all the times when he said things she didn’t quite believe, she realized it had been happening a lot.   Something was not right.   Brian was not acting like himself.

 

And then, a horrible, terrifying thought came to her.   What if the man she had been living with was not really Brian?

 

***

 

 

Next

 

Back to index